More on Public Schools and Ped**ophiles

January 16, 2011

A Priest and an Altar Boy, Hah, Ha, Ha

By Randall Hoven

This past June, Pope Benedict XVI said the church must promise "to do everything possible" to ensure that the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests "will never occur again." 

But the president of the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) was not satisfied.  She said, "Right now, kids are being assaulted by priests and bishops are concealing the crimes.  And the pope continues taking no action to stop this."  She said that the pope still ignores the main problem: "the ongoing recklessness, deceit, and callousness of bishops who, even now, protect predators instead of children."

The executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference had an answer to the problem.  "We believe that if women had a say in the church, if there was more accountability and more transparency, [then] the men would have been held more accountable."

The issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests is so commonplace that it is the subject of late-night "humor."

"I read this in the paper this morning: New York City has a priest shortage. So you see, there is some good news in the world. ... To give you an idea how bad it is, earlier today in Brooklyn an altar boy had to grope himself."
 - David Letterman

"As you've probably heard, the Pope has asked all the Cardinals to return to Rome. You know how they got them all to come back? They told them that there was going to be a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir."
 - Jay Leno

"The Cardinals will be staying at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, the new hotel at the Vatican, where turn down service means the bell boy isn't interested."
 - "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart

Let me take you on a journey into reality.  (Remember this starting point.)

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education reported on the results of academic studies into the prevalence of sexual abuse in Catholic schools.

As a group, these studies present a wide range of estimates of the percentage of U.S. students subject to sexual misconduct by school staff and vary from 3.7 to 50.3 percent.  Because of its carefully drawn sample and survey methodology, the AAUW report that nearly 9.6 percent of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career presents the most accurate data available at this time.

Based on the assumption that the AAUW surveys accurately represent the experiences of all K-12 students, more than 4.5 million students are subject to sexual misconduct ... sometime between kindergarten and 12^th grade.

Just last month, the Government Accountability Office reported on fifteen specific cases of sexual abuse in Catholic schools, showing that sexual abuse is ongoing and ignored even now.

The 15 cases GAO examined show that individuals with histories of sexual misconduct were hired or retained ... At least 11 of these 15 cases involve offenders who previously targeted children. Even more disturbing, in at least 6 cases, offenders used their new positions as school employees or volunteers to abuse more children.

We often hear how the Catholic priests and bishops excuse sexual offenders or merely pass them along from parish to parish.  The GAO confirmed such behavior.

A [school] compelled a teacher to resign after he accessed pornography on a school computer.  Although the school ... reported the abuse to child protective services, [an] administrator told another ... school seeking a reference that they would rehire the teacher "without reservation."  A second [school] also compelled him to resign, but his separation specifically directed all inquiries from future employers to the superintendent and agreed that he would provide a letter of recommendation.  This school ... also provided him with positive references.  He was eventually hired by a third [school], where he was convicted of sexually assaulting two students.

The GAO summarized the findings of the fifteen specific "cases of individuals with histories of sexual misconduct hired or retained."

In 10 of our 15 cases, school officials did not perform preemployment criminal history checks on prospective employees, including teachers, administrative staff, maintenance workers, volunteers, and contractors.  As a result, registered sex offenders were allowed to gain access to ... schools.  In 7 of these 10 cases, the offenders had been convicted for offenses against children and in at least 2 of the cases, they subsequently committed sexual crimes against children at the schools where they were working or volunteering.

In four of the cases we investigated, school officials allowed teachers who would have been subject to disciplinary action for sexual misconduct toward students to resign or otherwise separate from the school rather than face punishment.

That ends our little journey into reality.  (Remember this ending point.)

Now, I have a secret to tell you: everything in the above "journey into reality" (between the parenthetical starting and ending points) was about public schools, not Catholic ones.

The DoE report and the GAO report were real, but they were reporting primarily on public schools.  The 9.6% rate of "educator sexual misconduct" was based on surveys of public schools.  The estimate of 4.5 million children "subject to sexual misconduct" was based on those same surveys of public schools.

The quotes I used above did indeed come from those DoE and GAO reports.  I used brackets ([ ]) or ellipses (...) within the quotes only to disguise the identity of the schools or officials as public ones rather than Catholic ones.

In fact, the only false statements made in my "journey into reality" involved using the word "Catholic."  If you replace "Catholic" with "public" and replace the references to priests, bishops, and parishes with references to teachers, administrators, and school districts, the above journey accurately reflects the DoE and GAO reports.

The DoE report identified who the sexual offenders of schoolchildren are.

The U.S. Department of Education concluded that 4.5 million K-12 students are subjected to sexual misconduct from the types of people in the above list.  Do you find "priest" in that list?

Sexual misconduct occurs at some frequency in all types of power situations: teacher on student, parent on child, senior officer on enlisted, scout leader on scout, executive on intern, etc.  But there is no evidence that such a frequency is higher for priests.  Yet priests are virtually assumed guilty until proven innocent.

As usual, I see no attempt by people to get the facts.  We all just pile on like middle-school students and denigrate the kid who isn't currently popular.  For about two decades now, the unpopular kid is the priest -- all priests.  Make jokes about them.  Sue them.  Take their money.  Run Catholic parishes out of business and out of town.  Hah, hah, hah.

In the meantime, millions of kids are being sexually abused by their public school teachers, principals, counselors, and coaches.  And those public schools do little to weed out or punish the offenders; they often pass them along to other schools with positive job recommendations.  Where is the outrage about that?  Where are the jokes about that?  Is it only funny if the sexual offender wears a cleric's collar?

[Full disclosure: I am a lapsed Catholic, currently agnostic, who attended Catholic schools K-10.  Neither I nor anyone I knew in those schools was ever sexually approached, abused, molested, or mistreated in any way by any member of the clergy.  The nuns and priests who taught me took vows of celibacy, chastity, and poverty, and they received little pay and virtually nonexistent pensions.  However, they did make us memorize the times tables, do long division, and diagram sentences, none of which was very sexy for anyone involved.]

To Facebook or not to Facebook

When I first started my face-book page,  I wanted an avenue to stay in touch with some of my students.  I've always thought that the proof of a teacher's worth was the achievements of her students.  I have many who are managing to stay afloat in this lousy economy, one who spent 8 years working the Bush administration, one who is a playwright, one who is a campaign manager for congressional democrats, one who is a professional wrestler...

Then I dropped the page because students were using it as a way to complain about test scores, etc.

Now I'm back on facebook, mostly to look for old friends I haven't seen in years.  My friend Sue and I used to have a long distance cocktail hour once in a while.  We'd get a bottle of wine each, one in Omaha, one in San Fransisco, and talk on the phone for an hour or more as if we were hanging out for drinks.

I miss that a lot.

One of things that's hard about being a home-school mom is that you don't have the chance for those brief friendly chats that take place on the sidewalks before and after school with the other parents.  Instead, you email and blog about the school days with your colleagues.  It's virtual school sidewalk.

I guess that's why I'm on facebook again.  I hope to have a chance to catch up with friends, have a virtual cocktail hour once in a while, or a virtual 'bump' into an old fiend in the produce aisle. 

So if you've come here from face book, how about getting together for cocktails, or coffee?

Merry Christmas Potpourri, Day 2 of 12

There is so much to report and contemplate about Christmas this year.  My sister questioned the lifelong work of my father because he is a psychiatrist and the DSM no longer recognizes narcissism and homosexuality as disorders.  Dad's response was, "I have no response to that."  Understand that as a Catholic psychiatrist Dad has participated in exorcisms, and fought the wave of atheism rampant in his field.

My nephew and Godson Johnny had a Christmas crisis.  His sister Grace prodded him with questions regarding his belief in Santa.  He said,  "If Mom and Dad have been lying to me about this all along, then I have to run away."  More to come.

Some dear friends came to visit family and we convinced them to spend a few hours with us.  Our son was bereft when their boys didn't come along.  The baby was a beauteous example of tiny girlhood.  The parents, including us, caught up on the latest and fell back into the friendship that cannot be broken by time or distance.  There is something so deep and wonderful about the depth of love in friendship.  No wonder C.S. Lewis listed it among the Four Loves.  I love them so.  There is no way to lose that bond, but we sure wish it was more frequent.

This was a weird Christmas gift exchange.  We decided to exchange only 'As Seen On T.V.' gifts.  We came home with a kangaroo keeper, a cookie maker,an open-it, a swivel sweeper, and two pairs of dust mopping slippers.  The exchange was a laugh out loud scream, and I strongly recommend it as a theme for any family.  However, there were no snuggies exchanged, and 4 kangaroo keepers.  A word to the wise... Dig Deeper,  and don't discount the importance of the immortal words, "But that's not all.  You'll also receive..."  A selection of gifts exchanged are advertised below...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good Night!

Public School Pedo***** are no Surprise!!!

 Certain words have been censured in order to complete this post!  I would like to link you to the London Daily Mail, but I cannot.  I would like to link you to the Creative minority report, but I cannot.  I would love for you to read an article about  ped**hiles in public schools before your read the post below, but I cannot.  You see,  every attempt I make is scrubbed for content.  Find the story.  Read it.  Then read below:

This is, sadly. old news. Even if the number of offenders who have previous convictions were kept out of schools, those who are sex**lly attracted to children will be attracted to jobs that allow contact with children.

Psychiatrists will often tell you that ped**hiles are incurable. That is why the Diagnostic Service Manual has dropped pe**philes from their list of disorders, unless the pe##phile's own life is hurt by his/her actions. It doesn't matter if there are others who are hurt, only the pe##phile. This is the same reasoning used by the DSM to deny hom**exuality, incest, best**lity, and a host of other abhorrent practices as being disordered.

The ultimate goal of those who protect destructively deviant sex**lity is to force us to keep our eyes on the red herring. It goes like this:

"See that Catholic priest? He chose to never have s** again. Isn't that weird? Everyone has s**. It's as normal as breathing. Even the Chileans in the coal mine had to be having s** with each other because, well, you can't live without it can you? Boys will be boys and that means they never think above their waist for more than a few seconds at a time. Given the choice between food and s**, most men would choose..."

Sorry for the Harry Reid-like mention of the Chilean miners. This kind of insanity drives me nuts.

We live in a culture of death: Death to commitment through fruitless s**, death to love through meaningless s*, death to friendship through the assumption of s**, death to children through the assault of s**...

The truth is, most people throughout history have lived without sex for most of their lives.  They started to have s** when they were fertile, and the ceased to have s** when they were not.  With the onset of fertility came responsibility.  We remember Casanova because he was an exception.

Do we really want to make the exception the rule?

The Humbly Suspicious Thoughts of St. Joseph, Model Husband and Father

During the Middle Ages, when Passion and Mystery Plays were performed by guilds for whole towns, The York Mystery Cycle presented Joseph's dilemma as a combination of both Suspicion theory and the Humility theory.  His lines before the appearance of the Angel, as I recall, go something like this:

"Oh God, I'm sorry I've been so foolish.  Why would I think that a pretty young thing like Mary would be interested in an old coot like me?  My hair is gray and my beard is scraggly. I wouldn't have the energy to be the kind of husband a young woman wants these days.  I'll just quietly send her away, and do my best to provide for her so that she and the Baby don't come to any harm."

So he is suspicious of Mary's fidelity, but humbled by his recognition of his own inadequacy.  Rather than punishing her for what this play presents as Joseph's doubt's, he decides to send her away.

I wish I could do justice to how funny Joseph's lines are.  Every  man in the audience would have howling at Joseph's lament.

So maybe the answer is not suspicion or humility, but both as part of the human condition.  It certainly makes for a deeper performance by actor's, and is a more human response.